Rational Middle of Immigration Releases Finale of Video Series

It’s no secret that our country’s immigration system is failing. It’s past time that Republicans and Democrats come together to pass sensible immigration reform that will secure our border and create a method for undocumented workers to earn legal status that requires them to provide a positive ID, pass a criminal background check, and agree to work only for employers that deduct and match taxes.

The Rational Middle of Immigration is a ten-episode documentary series that sheds light on this complex issue to help foster healthy discussions toward a solution. They just released their two-part finale. I recommend you watch them!

“The unscrupulous employer is the only one winning because they are pushing down the wages and protections of the undocumented immigrant, the immigrant who’s here legally, the native-born worker who’s trying to make a go of it, but also the business owners trying to play by the rules,” said Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National immigration Forum.

A key point throughout the videos is how critical the undocumented workers who make up 5% of our country’s workforce are to the overall economy. At 3.7% unemployment we need these workers, and it’s imperative we find a way to bring them into a taxable legal workforce.

I couldn’t agree more with Randy Capps of the Migration Policy Institute when he explained that this would be an “earned legalization because people have to earn the right to stay here by working, contributing, and not committing crimes.” Deborah Notkin, Former Chair of the National Labor Liaison Committee, also made the point that a legalization program should be coupled with a reasonable worker program where there is a job waiting and no available US workers, while Laura Reiff of Greenberg Traurig said that this program should match the needs of our businesses and match the needs of our economy.

“American engineers wouldn’t have much to do if there wasn’t a labor force to build bridges and roads and so on down the line,” said David Bier, Immigration Policy Analyst at the CATO Institute.

Jeremy Robbins, Executive Director at New American Economy, explained that when you research what people think a solution to our broken immigration should look like, they agree that lawmakers should create a method for undocumented immigrants who have been living in and contributing to our country for many years to earn their legal status “if they can pass a background check, learn English, pay back taxes, and go to the back of line.”

Furthermore, Robbins stated that we need to “modernize our immigration system so that we’re bringing in the workers that we need to make our economy dynamic, while ensuring we’re protecting American workers, and so we can take control of our border and our employment system to make sure people are hiring legally."

These are commonsense solutions that most Americans are on board with!

I urge you to watch the videos, share them with your friends and colleagues, and use them to have productive discussions about the best path towards a sensible solution!